At this point I discovered my lovely sun burn in the shape of my Thai dress.
I love a good triangular burn.
We were quite tired after all the excitement and the early start so we dried to have a nap until Cham rang us as planned. I woke up to a knock on our bedroom door. It was Cham! Ahh, bit embarrassing she asked us 'go Samui?' She obviously saw that we'd just woken up and thought we'd forgotten or got our wires crossed about when we would be leaving. We grabbed our bags and jumped into the car. We met Cham's husband who would be driving us to Surat Thani. They had very kindly bought lunch for us which we ate in the car. My eyes decided to have a little cry because it was so spicy! They just can't control themselves around chilies.
As we got closer into town Cham pointed about the hospital and said 'we go later'. We weren't sure why we would be going there but we nodded and smiled anyway... More about the hospital later.
We thought we were going to the bus station but we pulled up onto the drive of a nice house in a gated community. Greeted by a little white poodely looking dog we went into the house, which was obviously Cham's house and met her daughter, White. White spoke quite good English and studies it at University. She was really friendly and we had a good chat over some mangosteens (remember the amazing fruit?!).
We drove to the bus station to see what time the bus to Don Sak was, we had about 30 minutes to spare so went for a drive to the river which is aparantly a popular place in the area for Thai people to go on holiday to.
Back to the bus station we said our goodbyes and headed off on the bus. Joy got a call from White while we were on the bus telling us to get an orange/red tuk tuk to Chaweng beach when we got to Samui. Very helpful advice!
The coach/bus took around an hour to get us to the ferry port at Don Sak. Once we were there we didn't have to wait long until it was time to board the ferry. The ferry ride was quite calm and we sat at the outdoor seating area where we saw an amazing sunset.
When we got off the ferry we had a look for the orange/red tuk tuk that White had mentioned. We were looking for a small tuk tuk like the ones we went on in Bangkok. We did however see and orange truck with benches in the back that tourists were on. The one we saw was already dangerously packed full of people so we decided to walk away from the pier and to the main road to find this small orange tuk tuk we had imagined. When we got to the road we felt a bit lost because there wasn't a small orange tuk tuk in sight and not actually many cars or taxis at all. Another orange truck that wasn't so full beckoned us on and said they were going to Chaweng Beach so we agreed and decided that this is the orange tuk tuk that White had mentioned! Oops. It took about 40 minutes to get to Chaweng Beach and we both felt a bit lost because we couldn't see where we were and didn't realise it was that far away from the ferry! Soon all of the Thais on our Songtaow (we eventually found out the real name for the truck!) had got off.
The driver asked us where we were going and looked very confused at the response of The Samui Hostel. Joy remembered that in the directions from the hostels website it said to ask for the Murcure hotel. Thankfully the driver gave a knowing nod and we set off. We were shipped out and paid at the Mercure. Luckily due to a fluke of me being able to find things fast it only took a second of us standing outside the Mercure for me to see the sign for the Samui Hostel down a side road. We went in and there was a Thai girl in reception who we said sawadeekah to. We waited for either her to go round to the other side of the desk or for someone that worked there to appear. After 2 tense and weirdly confusing minutes where nothing happened she said 'check out?' Erm, well we've just walked in with bags so no. 'Check in?' We said making an 'in' gesture. Round to the desk she went and took a good while trying to figure out what room we were in, I'm not sure she'd been working there long, she certainly needs some more training anyway! She showed us up to our private hostel room which was actually really nice!
It was about £4 a night so you can't complain really can you. Oh and yeah, it was a bit of a cop out that the first hostel we stayed in was a private room but it was only £1 a night cheaper and we just wanted to sleep in a nice quiet room in a bed whose matress wasn't made of wood!
We head out and went for dinner, where the heavens well and truly opened and then sat in a tiny bar with a guy playing acoustic guitar.
In the bar myself and Joy had a Chang and cocktail and the singing began. We were joining in with the often incorrect lyrics from Max, the Thai guy playing guitar. He loved the audience participation so got us to join in more and more sometimes not singing. I ended up singing most of Jessie J's 'Price Tag' hiding behind my cocktail. The song whose chorus goes 'English man in New York' was edited by Max to be 'English girls in Samui' much to our amusement. That stayed in my head all weekend especially everytime anyone said Samui!
After his set Max went around the 6 tables in the bar chatting to the punters. When he came over to us he was asking us what we were doing in Thailand and loved that we were teachers. I told him that I play guitar and he gave a little growl saying I should have said so I could have played his! Missing my own guitar I wanted to take up this offer so we agreed to go back on Saturday so I could play a couple of tunes. More about Max later.
In the morning we headed out early to explore the beach and to grab some breakfast.
I had a nice plain breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. I decided farang food was the way to go that morning, couldn't hack a curry!
That day we had a little explore, contemplated hiring mopeds but got scared and met up with Victoria and Rebecca, two ETA's placed just South of us in Nhakon Si Thammarat.
Me and Joy also got Thai massages. Because it was a woman that we spoke to in the shop I assumed it would be women giving the massages. However out walked two guys about the same age as me and Joy. We lay next to each other during the hour long massage while the guys giggled and spoke in Thai to each other. AWKWARD. They then asked how old we were and where we were from etc but the massage was over after not too long so we could make our escape! It was actually quite relaxing and not majorly painful like we've been told from some people.
That night, looking a but tanned, we went out in a group of 7 with myself, Joy, Victoria, Rebecca and 3 other Southern ETA's; Amanda, Laura and Jessica. First we went out for some pizza (mmmmmmm) and then to the famous Reggae bar which was almost a shrine to Bob Marley. They love him over here! Although to get the bar we had to walk down a street full of bars named things like 'Cherry Pop' and '69 Bar' I'll let you use your imagination as to what that street was all about.
We watched a reggae band which were actually really good and they beckoned Vicky up onto the stage because the Thais love her hair here, especially in a Reggae bar.
We had plans to head up to a party at Cha Cha Moon after the a Reggae bar due to the amount of billboards I had seen in the day like this:
But just as we were about to leave the Reggae Bar, Amanda's flip flop bit the dust. There was no where local to buy a new pair of shoes, unless we bought some from a prostitue along that street! Instead we popped into a local convenience store to tape it up. I cried tears of joy. Hilarious.
All taped up we were ready to go and we walked past loads of bars of people watching the World Cup *yawn* on the way to Cha Cha Moon.
The beach bar/club was really nice but it was just a bit dead! We put it down to the football being on and thought it might fill up when the game was over. No such luck. The house beats couldn't persuade anyone else in so we all decided to head back to the hostel so we could make the most of the next day without sore heads.
On Saturday myself and Joy decided we would leave the girls to it on the beach and go for a bit of an explore around the island. It was bigger than expected so the only way to get around is by moped, Songtaow (truk-tuk) or taxi. We consulted the map and set our minds on seeing at least one waterfall and the 'Big Buddah' shrine. We did think about doing a set tour but when we asked about it they were a bit pricey and most involved seeing chained up monkeys or elephants. No thank you! We decided public transport was the way forward.
We waited at the side of the road for a Songtaow. They do a set route around the island so you just have to hail them. We showed him on the map where we wanted to go, barterd down the price and set off.
We were dropped by a sign to the waterfall at the side of the main road. Ok. It was at this point I realised we were in for a long walk. It looked like we were standing at sea level. Waterfalls are obviously going to be at least up a hill a bit! Oh no.
This was steeper than it looks in the photo. It was hotter than you can possibly imagine it was from the photo. I had less water than you think I had.
My worried face soon turned into desperation.
There weren't many cars around just a few nipping past us and no one else was walking. Myself and Joy were dealing with the dilemma of wether to walk back to the main road or wether to carry on despite not having a lot of water left and not knowing how far it was. Suddenly all positive thoughts came our way to give us a can-do attitude. On we walked.
Soon we were saved! A truk taking people up to the waterfall on a tour beeped and stopped. They signalled for us to get on, I didn't hear this part but Joy asked how much and they replied 'a million'. Here's where we could have been scammed out of a lot of money! The truck took us up to a place where you could have a photo with a tiger and it would then carry on to the waterfall. We stuck to our morals and avoided the tiger photo because they're all drugged up so they don't attack humans. Very cruel. We were then driven up to the waterfall. At this point we decided we would walk all the way back down after we had experienced the waterfall so we wouldn't have to pay for the tour truk! Cheeky.
Joy jumped in the waterfall to cool off but I decided against it because without a towel I didn't fancy an uncomfortable walk all the way back down to the main road afterwards!
It was at this point that I saw the tamest butterfly ever. It hung around for along time, fluttering around people and settling back down in the same spot. Paradise.
We realised there was another waterfall higher up so climbed up to explore more.
Feeling like an accomplished Lara Croft, Tomb Raider after the adventurous climb I had an obligatory selfie with a waterfall. Had to be done.
Armed with the T-shirt id been carrying around to protect my already burnt shoulders, I sported a sweaty sad face on the walk from the waterfalls back to the tiger mid point. It was H O T.
The view kind of made up for it though. Well played Thailand, well played.
When we reached the mid point, I declared to Joy that with no water left I refused to walk to the main road. Also I thought if we wanted to squeeze in the Big Buddah we would have to get a wriggle on so we jumped in a taxi that dropped us at the bottom of the mountain ;).
A little shop at the bottom saved my life with some ice cold water before we hopped into the Songtaow up to the north of the island. It's funny the people you meet on those little songtaows, first it was a Russian man who was there on business and was suffering from his first hangover after not drinking for a year. Then it was an American girl and a Japanese girl she'd met in a hostel who were telling us about their travels in the North of Thailand. After the 40 minute journey we reached the Big Buddah. Horray! Which is right next to, the appropriately named, Big Buddah Beach.
We caught the Big Buddah at sunset. A great time for the view but also because there weren't many tourists there!
After the incredible sights at Big Buddah we headed back to Chaweng Beach to the hostel and met up with the girls for some dinner and some Changs!
After food we headed with the rest of the girls to mine and Joy's favourite 'Twins Bar' from Thursday night to have that promised go on Max's guitar.
He was very happy to see us and I was quickly brought up to the front to not only play a cover I'd played at a music show at uni but sing 5 other songs with him. It was great fun but I think the bar staff had more fun than all of us, I think they were happy for someone to be singing the right lyrics for once ;)
Max even accompanied my cover with the harmonica. That has to be a highlight of the weekend!
We all had to leave earlyish on Sunday morning so we decided to not have a mad night after Twins bar on Sunday. Instead we all went back to mine and Joy's room and put together this list of future weekend ideas.
On Sunday we grabbed some lunch near the ferry port before we headed back to main land.
I went for noodles with veg on a chavvy table cloth. If you look closely you can see green - pea looking things. They are not peas. I found out the hard way. Imagine eating black pepper. Then eat some more. Infact just eat a whole pepper corn. Maybe even four at once. Not ideal. You get my point.
We successfully got the ferry back to Don Sak and the bus back to Surat Thani. We had arranged with Miss Cham that she would meet us at the bus terminal she dropped us at on our return to Surat Thani. The bus people tried to kick us off at a different place. We got off and were trying to explain we wanted the bus station. They insisted we were at it but it was obviously a different one. Then I remembered I had taken a picture of the bus station. Oh the power of technology. After a quick flash of the photo we were back on the bus and dropped in the right place. Only now neither of our Thai phones would work to ring Cham. Oh the demise of technology. I had a little no-tears cry for my bank balance when I ha to call her from my English number.
Thankfully that worked and she picked us up.
We were whisked to a 'floating market' by Cham and her husband. It wasn't so much floating as just next to a river but it was good none the less. There was lots of food stalls and an amazing sunset. We also got stared at a lot which was a bit strange having not being stared at all weekend with other farang's on Samui.
After some food sitting next to the river and standing up still with all the Thais for the Thai national anthem, Cham and her Husband took us back to their house. Cham said something about the hospital and 'we go' with a gesture to the door. We picked up her next door neighbour and walked to the hospital... We weren't sure why on the walk there, when we were there we weren't sure why either. We didn't visit anyone or really see anything apart from a Thai hospital with a little market inside and a few shops. We put it down to the fact that Joy is at Uni to be a doctor so it may well have been that.
Back at Cham's house we were given the double bed in White's room as she was back at uni in Bangkok.
We went down for breakfast the next day at 6am and slept through the hour journey to school. We had a great first weekend and couldn't wait for the rest!
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